The SSRC is an independent, international, nonprofit organization. It fosters innovative research, nurtures new generations of social scientists, deepens how inquiry is practiced within and across disciplines, and mobilizes necessary knowledge on important public issues.

The Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa, launched in 2011, responds to an emerging dilemma within higher education in the global South caused by the extraordinary emphasis on increasing undergraduate enrollment without proportionate investment in faculty development, limiting the ability of universities to produce the next generation of researchers, faculty, technocrats, and leaders.
The program currently operates to strengthen tertiary education in Africa by offering a sequence of fellowship opportunities for promising PhD students to undertake research and make steady progress toward completion of the doctoral degree.